The small "Büssli" autonomously delivers goods from A to B, initially in a six-month trial project in Ebikon. Schindler employees can shop at Migros and have the goods delivered to their workplace by the "Loxo Alpha.
At 30 kilometers per hour, Loxo drives across pedestrian crossings, over traffic circles and past sidewalks, in the normal course of everyday traffic. The deliveries are monitored from an operations center, where an "operator" can intervene at any time if necessary.
Great potential
The potential of the startup, which grew out of the University of Applied Sciences Fribourg, is great. Several European countries are already interested, the application possibilities are diverse, flexible and above all correspond to the spirit of the times.
Startup accelerator PXP Ventures also recognized this in mid-2022: "We believe this is what the future of last-mile home delivery services will look like - Loxo simply solves problems," says Luc Holzach, co-founder of PXP Ventures. The accelerator is invested with marketing-related services, which are implemented by its sister company Partner & Partner in Winterthur. These include product design and branding, the website, various events, content marketing and numerous other services.
"With Partner & Partner, our technology gets a cool, contemporary branding and we have an experienced communications and marketing team on our side as a founding team," says Lara Amini, co-founder of Loxo.
"In a way, we provide Loxo's marketing department, because startups often can't afford the right resources or don't have the necessary know-how internally. And we wanted to take the opportunity to participate in this project. That's why we decided on this model together," says Luc Holzach.
PXP Ventures is also involved in other projects with similar models, such as Customer Metrics, which has recently been launched and offers standardized scoring models for measuring customer satisfaction - thus allowing conclusions to be drawn about internal and external areas for action in addition to benchmarking.
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There are many measurement methods around the topic of customer satisfaction, but they all have one thing in common: "They tend to be symptom analyses that say little or nothing about the cause of the problem - and what can be done about it. That's exactly what's different with Customer Metrics," says Jan-Erik Baars, professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU, who developed the methodology behind it.
Together with Prof. Dr. Dominik Georgi at the HSLU, Baars researched an approach that analyzes companies as simply as possible but in depth in terms of customer centricity - and shows what can be improved. Thus, after several years of research and in collaboration with Swisscom, the so-called Customer Centricity Score, or "CCScore" for short, was created.
The CCSScore is available for companies of all sizes and industries and is based on an internal survey with 15 core questions. "The survey is internal because the structures, processes and management have an immense influence on how customer-centric a company is - or can be better," Georgi explains. Based on the answers of as many employees as possible, a profile is created and the starting points and levers for an orientation toward customer centricity are identified. Now, on the newly launched website a self-test can be performed.
PXP Ventures acquires Marketing and further development
The Startup accelerator PXP Ventures as co-founder of Customer Metrics, is now responsible for further marketing. "We support the company by developing the product in a market-oriented way and driving marketing. That's our investment. Operationally, we handle this through our sister company Partner & Partner," says Luc Holzach, co-founder and partner at PXP Ventures.
"To develop and test the methodology, we have the knowledge and the resources," says Baars, adding, "However, to turn it into a product and market it, we are dependent on other partners and are very happy to have found one in PXP Ventures that brings the appropriate know-how, both in terms of business and content."
Further score in progress
A second score, which measures customer centricity from the customer's perspective, is now in the pilot phase. The Customer Impact Score, or "CIScore" for short, is complementary to the CCScore and surveys the external perspective. CCScore and CIScore can be used independently of each other. However, simultaneous application is ideal in order to obtain as comprehensive a picture as possible of a company's customer centricity.
Meanwhile, PXP Ventures is also developing the CCScore further: In 2022, it is to be made accessible on a low-threshold basis via a self-service platform. Partner & Partner has been commissioned to build this platform. The development phase of the online platform will take around another year.
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There are more reasons why startups fail than why they should succeed. Support from third parties is therefore often a key success factor: whether to fill knowledge or resource gaps, to avoid the most common mistakes - or to ensure liquidity.
Support is now also offered by Winterthur-based start-up accelerator and facilitator PXP Ventures. "We offer start-ups, but also start-up-like constructs, various performance models - for example, sweat for equity," says Luc Holzach, one of the company's founders. "This allows us to take part in the risk - and at the same time minimize it through our broad know-how. It also makes us fundable for startups."
The accelerator's expertise lies primarily in the areas of business models, go-to-market strategies, scaling and marketing. In addition, PXP Ventures can draw on the resources of its sister agency Partner & Partner: "Our breath is long, and we draw on decades of our own experience," says Benno Maggi, co-founder of PXP Ventures and CEO at Partner & Partner.
But how can interested start-ups or start-up-like constructs benefit from the services? "It's very simple: You seek a conversation with us and apply to us. We are an eight-member committee that decides on any collaboration and the scope of the investment," Holzach explains. "In this committee, different competencies and perspectives come together, so we can cover relatively many topics in terms of content - but also have no fear of new things."
Two current mandates from PXP Ventures illustrate the breadth of its involvement: The first mandate involves the global go-to-market support of a complex and sustainable mobility product. Everything from strategy to storytelling and design to investor relations is included in PXP Ventures' services. Another mandate involves building and marketing a platform from a university spin-off for data-driven customer centricity.
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